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How the story of chilling stalking of Alex Lovell unfolded

In a statement following the guilty plea, Mrs Lovell said: “He stole two years of my freedom with his persistent threats of rape.

“Nowhere felt safe and every day I would look over my shoulder wondering if he was as near as he said he was. He repeatedly described how he would attack me and that he had raped before.

“Prior to the threats, I’d been receiving letters at work from this man for four years.

Gordon Hawthorn leaves Bristol Magistrates' Court

“In a situation like this, you don’t know who your aggressor is – you only know who they claim to be. ‘Gordon’ portrayed himself as obsessive and sexually violent.

“During this time I found great comfort in an app called HollyGuard. It’s free to download and if you find yourself in a threatening situation, you shake it and an alert is sent out to your chosen contacts. They also receive your GPS position and a live audio and visual feed from your phone."